Stars-Oilers Series Preview.

 WCF 1C Dallas vs Edmonton 2P

Now in the other Conference Final Preview, we have a WCF matchup between the Stars and the Oilers in the Western Conference Final, now for the Stars and the Oilers this is another intriguing matchup as a lot of people were expecting this to be the Conference Final last year before Vegas beat Edmonton in round 2, so this is the best team in the West and the best team in the Central in the Dallas Stars taking on an Edmonton Oilers team who was second in the Pacific Division this year and are the only team who's not a division winner to be in the Conference Finals so that's going to be interesting.

History of Rivalry between teams in playoffs:

Now for the Oilers and the Stars this is going to be the ninth all time meeting between the Dallas Stars and the Edmonton Oilers now, the first two meetings were when Dallas was the Minnesota North Stars where in 84 the Minnesota North Stars lost to Edmonton and in 91 they beat the Oilers, so you do have history when they were both Dallas and Minnesota, but since then in 97 Edmonton beat Dallas but then in 98, 99, 2000 and 2001 the Stars beat the Oilers so the Stars beat the Edmonton Oilers in four consecutive Seasons after facing off against them in the playoffs five straight times and then the Edmonton Oilers also lost to the Dallas Stars in 2003 but they haven't met up since then, so this is going to be the first meeting in 21 years between the Stars and the Oilers so it'll be interesting to see who ends up with this one as Dallas has won majority of them, six times in the previous history Dallas has been able to beat Edmonton in the playoffs so interesting stuff there and so we'll have to wait and see exactly how that series goes this year. 

Season Series Record:

Dallas 2-0-1 12-7+5

Edmonton 1-2-0 7-12-5

Jerome Miron USA Today Sports

Each Teams X-Factors: Pavelski vs Skinner

Now as for the X-Factors in this series for both these teams, I would have to say that tthe X-Factors for the 2 teams are a veteran on one side and the other sides starting goalie. Now for the Stars they have a lot of players that could be X-Factors such as Hintz, Robertson, Oettinger etc, but I would say the X-Factor is Pavelski, now over the pas few playoff runs for the Stars Pavelski has been a big reason as to why they have gone so far and why they have gone so deep, but in these playoffs he has barely had any production and also hasn’t been as noticeable in the first two rounds and we know how big of a difference maker he can be so if he can get going i like the Stars chance even more, while on the Oilers side they have a goalie in Stuart Skinner who started the last round atrocious but was great in the final two games when he needed to be, so we have seen both the best and worst of Skinner in these playoffs and if the Oilers want to get to the Cup they are going to need Skinner to play great because if he isn’t then I don’t give the Oilers much chance of winning.

Which teams are best at 3 Position:

Offense: Offensively, in a similar manner of like what I did in the second round series with the Dallas Stars, I have to give the edge to the Edmonton Oilers given the fact they have McDavid and Draisaitl, but top to bottom I think Dallas has the much deeper and better offense so I'll give the slight edge to Edmonton because I can't go against Draisaitl and McDavid but I think that Dallas top to bottom can get way more offensive contributions from a lot more different places than the Edmonton Oilers could ever, so I think that Stars do have a deeper offense but with the capabilities of McDavid and Draisaitl I am going to say the Oilers have the slight Edge on the forward group.

Perry Nelson USA Today Sports 

Defence: Defensively I don't think it's even close, Dallas has the way better defense as they have Heiskanen, Lindell, Suter and Tanev which has been working out fantastically for them Harley's been a great addition so top to bottom they have a fantastic defense whereas Edmonton has a mediocre defense at best I mean Bouchard and Ekholm are a really good pair, Nurse is good at times but besides that they really don't have a whole bunch of really good defensive players on the defense so I'm going to say that Dallas winds up having the edge on the defensive end.

Goaltending: And in net I think it's quite simply put that Jake Oettinger is way better of a goalie then Calvin Pickard or Skinner and while both Pickard and Skinner are decent goalies, they're nowhere near to the level that Oettinger is as a top 10-15 goalie in the NHL, so with that in mind although they do have a really good compete level I would say  the Stars have the better net minder.

Biggest on Ice Matchup: McDavid and Draisaitl vs Dallas D-Corp

Next up in what I think is the biggest matchup in this series is going to be Edmonton’s two big offense weapons against the Stars D-Corp, now over the past two rounds we saw the Stars D-Corp find ways to shut down opponents offensive weapons such as Eichel, Stone and Marchessault in Vegas and Mackinnon, Rantanen and Makar in Colorado and if they play like they did in round 1 and 2 then they have the ability to shut down Edmonton’s big guns while with Edmonton they have a extremely talented forward group and if they can figure out the Stars D-Corp then they may have a solid chance of winning this series and finally advancing to a Cup Final, so it will be interesting to see who wins this series. 

Prediction: 

Now in my Opinion Edmonton is coming off of a long and hard fought series against the Canucks where they even almost blew it in game seven against Vancouver who was a  team who had a third string goalie who was a rookie and also did not have Brock Boeser who was injured, so that doesn't bode well for me playing a Dallas team who's been resting up and is going to be raring to go for the conference final so in my opinion I'm going to take Dallas in five games I know that might be a little bit of a shock to some people but I think Dallas is going to make quick work of the Oilers, they just they did not look good for me over in the second round and Dallas is a completely different Beast than Vancouver so in my opinion I’m taking Dallas who I think is going to make short work of Edmonton and advance to The Cup Final and that's my prediction right now.